Imperfections
by ICantGetADecentName
Summary: The most general types of defect a material experiences are point, line, planar, and volume. Each one of them has its own impact on the final product, whether it be an extra atom in the lattice or a chunk of material lost in the bulk. Whoever thought an engineering concept could apply to people, too. Cover is a screenshot from Season 2 Episode 1.


Disclaimer: Shiro is not mine. Nah, this was me dreaming he was.

* * *

He exudes strength

A sturdy structure for his friends,

A plane which I rely on.

He is everything we needed him to be.

Yet, I know he's not perfect.

Even these untrained eyes of mine could see

Every point, line, plane, and bulk

Defects and impurities that hide within the lattices of his being.

**Point**

His eyes bare it all.

You can see it in his eyes,

He looks upon the vastness of space and remembers

Remembers a time when this was his dream

But now only vacancy remains

An awareness of reality, but never resignation

Nothing replaces the dreams he had lost

But something forces into the interstices

The spaces between who he is

Loved ones and friends that change him

Small enough to stay there lodged

Into his space and into his heart

**Line**

Lines adorn his body now

Most are under his clothes and in his mind

but he can never hide the slash on his nose

Where once the skin was smooth and unmarred

Now scars will mark him forever

Under my fingers he flinches as I caress the newer ones

I whisper words of comfort in his ears

Cause I know

There are stories to each of his scars

He tries to forget, his mind is misaligned

Planes of unspeakable encounters edge in his soul

They screw with his soul and dislocate his body

I hold on to his heart, 'cause it's all I can do

Stresses on dislocations make him curl in on himself

They surround him like boundaries

Until he has had enough and pushes back

like an aura it radiates outward

I remember there is beauty in his scars as I card the white tuft of hair on his head

**Planar**

His external surface is a sum of his defects

When he steps in front of a teammate,

he doesnt want them to feel the pain of the blow

he knows how bad it can get

His morbid jokes are the product of his near death experiences

i'm amazed at how he can easily laugh at the most dire of circumstances

His calloused touch is the result of fights won and lost

of the lives he took and the lives he's saved

I wonder at his dark clothes

The preference for black is laughable twin defect of ours

Despite his difference in experience, we both know

It hides the blood that has turned from red to brown

A feeling of loss that he cannot risk wearing his favorite color

A namesake he chose for himself

**Volume**

The enemy has processed him

Tore away a piece of him he'll never get back

Replaced the flesh of his arm with metals of their creation

But more than that

They place a notch in him

An insurance

That he'll break when they wish it so

Volumes of sorrow he hides

Pores in his pride and demeanor

He will never let his brothers know

That he is full of voids

And at night, when his self-appointed wards are asleep

He lets me in

I look closely at the tracks of his tears

They cascade down his cheeks like cracks

Exposing new surfaces that could make or break him

I hold him as tight as I can

Together, we cry until the sun comes up

He isn't perfect

He will never be

These defects are innate

Nothing can take them away

But these imperfections

They make him who he is

They are marks of his achievements

Challenges he faced and trials he passed

He has risen every time he fell

He never needed to be perfect

His faults are mine to endear

As he is mine to love.

* * *

Story behind the story/poem? Our professor wanted us to write poetry about one of the lecture topics. During this time I was a Voltron trash, and my sleep deprived brain found a muse in Shiro. The following morning I passed a similar work to this one, minus the fandom references. A year and a half later, I found this again while cleaning my onedrive folder. I was about to stack it again somewhere never to see the light of the day, when I thought "Might as well post it on my account, it was never published anyway."

So here it is.


End file.
